One of the equipment suppliers that consistently brings out new products is KLA-Tencor. However, the metrology supplier rarely figures in the most popular rankings in any given year. That has changed in 2008 with its TeraFab tool. Although only released recently, the fifth most popular product was from TEL and Novellus for copper interconnects.

There was no surprise this end that Alchimer’s eG ViaCoat solution proved to be the most popular. I had voted for it in SEMI’s SEMICON West best product awards and many visitors to our review would seem to agree.